Executive Director

LAYC YouthBuild Public Charter School

Washington, D.C.

SUMMARY

The LAYC YouthBuild Public Charter School, a cutting-edge educational facility blending the widely acclaimed YouthBuild national service program with a service-oriented and non-traditional academic curriculum, seeks nominations and applications for their next Executive Director. LAYC YouthBuild Public Charter School (LAYC YouthBuild PCS) is one of the only bilingual alternative high school in Washington, D.C. and offers students ages 16-24 who have either dropped out or have been expelled from traditional schools, but who have decided to make positive changes in their lives, the ability to earn both their GED and the practical skills necessary for success in the real world. Reporting to the board of directors and leading a talented staff of 16, the next Executive Director will guide LAYC YouthBuild PCS through an exciting time as the school seeks to expand its curriculum to offer traditional high school diplomas, to expand its physical location and enrollment capacity, and to complete its first Middle States accreditation cycle. The Executive Director will be a committed advocate for both the school and its students and will be responsible for all aspects of the school’s operations. This will include working closely with the Principal and the Business Manager to guide strategic planning, operations maintenance, academics, and marketing. S/he will also be an effective and seasoned fundraiser carrying LAYC YouthBuild PCS’s mission and stories of students’ success into new communities of supporters. The ideal candidate will have 7-10 years relevant leadership experience in the nonprofit community and will demonstrate a passion for, familiarity with, and commitment to working with youth to improve their lives and their futures through active scholarship and service.  

HISTORY AND MISSION

LAYC YouthBuild Public Charter School opened in 2005 as an outgrowth of an effective program begun ten years earlier by the Latin American Youth Center in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. Its founding philosophy was to provide an environment of unrelenting respect and support for the most troubled young people in the District in which the development of academic and life skills intertwined. For LAYC YouthBuid PCS this meant offering its curriculum in both Spanish and English, providing students the extensive support services necessary for improved academic and personal performance, incorporating real-world skill training into the curriculum, and holding students accountable for both their performance and the maintenance of a healthy, productive learning environment that is free of the negative behaviors prevalent in other troubled youth communities.

Today, LAYC YouthBuild PCS enjoys a reputation as one of the most successful charter schools in the capital area. Selection for school attendance is highly competitive, the student graduation rate is upwards of 69%, and LAYC YouthBuild PCS students have gone on to successful professional and academic careers. Because it is bilingual, LAYC Youthbuild PCS is also able to draw students from all wards of the city and to integrate cultural learning and a celebration of diversity into all aspects of the school experience. On average, the student population is 40% Latino and 60% African American. Thirty percent of the student population speaks limited or no English.

In addition to its rigorous academic curriculum, LAYC YouthBuild PCS helps students acquire practical skills following the YouthBuild national program model. Students learn both the construction trade and the importance of active citizenship by building housing for homeless or for low-income families. Through this hands-on work, the students transform themselves, their communities, and their employment prospects.

LAYC YouthBuild PCS maintains its excellence as a small, bilingual alternative school by providing extremely modest class sizes and extensive support services to its students. The average class size is 8-10 students, and the school pays its students a stipend for attendance at the school as a way to defray the costs of being in school instead of at work. LAYC YouthBuild PCS also insists on investing in students who are prepared to invest in themselves: Students are held to rigorous drug and violence free standards of behavior. This attention to students’ environment both while at LAYC YouthBuild PCS and at home helps to ensure students who have not succeeded in traditional learning environments can prosper and develop the skills to maintain their prosperity for years to come.

LAYC YouthBuild PCS’s ambitions and successes have not gone unnoticed. The school has been recognized for its excellence as an alternative high school through funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and through recognition by the Catalogue for Philanthropy as one of the best small non-profits in the Washington region. The Washington Post has also featured LAYC YouthBuild PCS as a cutting-edge program changing lives for D.C. youth. The new Executive Director will have the opportunity to build on these successes as s/he meets the challenges and opportunities of the coming years.

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

With each new success, LAYC YouthBuild PCS has aimed to sharpen its focus and to expand the effectiveness and depth of its creative programming. The next Executive Director will come to LAYC YouthBuild PCS at an exciting time in the school’s evolution as it deepens its current curriculum to include a high school diploma offering, expands its physical space through a build out scheduled for Fall 2008, increases student enrollment, and approaches its first Two-Year Middle States accreditation cycle in Spring 2009. The next Executive Director will work closely with key members of the LAYC YouthBuild PCS community including the board of trustees, the Business Manager, the Principal, the academic staff, the support staff, and the students to ensure this next phase of the school’s development is as successful and exciting as its first. The responsibilities of the Executive Director will include, but are not limited to:

Leadership and Management:

The Executive Director is accountable for the school’s performance in all areas. S/he will supervise, evaluate, and provide guidance and mentorship to the Principal and Business Manager and will be an inspiration and role model to all other staff members and students. S/he must ensure the implementation and success of long-term initiatives such as the Middle States accreditation process while assisting the Principal in handling any short-term challenges that may arise.

Program Development, Implementation, and Growth:

The Executive Director will work with the Principal, the school’s chief academic officer, to implement the High School Diploma Curriculum which will be offered beginning in the 2008-09 school year concurrent with the existing GED component of the school. S/he will guide an increase in the school’s enrollment from its current 65 to its cap of 100 students over the coming two school years. Finally, s/he will lead the school through the accreditation process with the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. This is a two-year process which will begin in the next school year and must be completed by school year 2009-10.

Overall Operations and Finance:

The Executive Director is responsible for all aspects of the school’s operations. This includes ensuring compliance with federal, state, and local laws and regulations, monitoring an annual budget of $1.5 million, and maintaining a clean audit each year.

S/he will develop and ensure the passage of the annual budget, will monitor expenditures to ensure spending targets are not exceeded and income targets are being met, and will oversee compliance with all relevant regulations and the annual audit. As an added and temporary challenge, s/he will oversee the build out and subsequent move to the school’s expanded facility which is anticipated to be completed in January, 2009.

Fundraising and Development:

The Executive Director will be responsible for meeting the annual fundraising target of $625,000 to ensure long-term financial stability. These funds go toward keeping class sizes small and paying the student stipend vital to the financial viability of education as an option for the school’s young people. Effective fundraising will include the maintenance of both federal and private foundation grants and the solicitation of support from private and corporate donors. The new Executive Director will also work with the Board of Trustees to close any remaining funding gap in service to the build out of the new facility.

Partnership Building and External Affairs:

The Executive Director will be a champion for the school in the local community and in the national YouthBuild and philanthropic network. S/he will develop and maintain relationships with local political and corporate leaders, local media, members and staff of the D.C. Public Charter School Board, and school staff, students, and family members. S/he will attend charter school network meetings, testify at city council hearings, and meet with local officials, bringing to each and all an in-depth understanding of the unique and important role LAYC YouthBuild PCS plays in the public education system.

Board Development, Diversification, and Expansion:

The Executive Director reports to the Board of Trustees and must work closely with its members to continuously support and encourage their leadership efforts, leverage their abilities, and bring on new members who complement the board’s existing expertise.

QUALIFICATIONS 

The next Executive Director must have a profound respect for young people and believe that they come first in all activities of LAYC YouthBuild PCS.

The next Executive Director will come to LAYC YouthBuild PCS with the desire to change lives, the tenacity to never give up, and the unfailing belief in and respect for the intelligence of young people. . S/he will be a visionary, a mentor, an inspiration, and a role model. The ideal candidate will bring experience in education and youth development and will understand working with at-risk youth sufficiently enough to handle any and all challenges with grace, maturity and aplomb. Finally, the next Executive Director will bring impeccable strategic thinking skills to the challenge of envisioning a future for LAYC YouthBuild PCS that is ambitious and creatively leverages the financial reality of a nonprofit budget.

While no one person will embody all of the qualities enumerated below, the ideal candidate will possess many of the following professional and personal characteristics:

• A minimum seven years experience managing an organization of similar complexity.

• A management style that is collaborative, energetic, and respectful of the important relationships with community partners, funders, and other opinion leaders. The ability to set the tone for an organizational culture that combines respectful collaboration with a disciplined attention to productivity and capitalizes on every opportunity to develop staff. The ability to be a dynamic and compelling ambassador to all audiences including staff, funders, board members, government officials, public agencies, students, and parents.

• Demonstrable success and passion for fundraising in the nonprofit sector. Understanding of the art of donor cultivation and maintenance. Success soliciting support from a variety of sources including individual donors, government agencies, foundations, and the private sector.

• Experience dealing with challenged youth communities including adjudicated youth, teenage parents, and youth with behavioral problems. A role model for the respect and tolerance expected of all in the LAYC YouthBuild PCS community.

• Skill and savvy working with a volunteer Board of Trustees and leveraging staff and board talent and time. The ability to work closely with and support the expertise of the staff with open communication and effective management techniques. Ability to identify and recruit able staff, and to motivate, mentor, and inspire an effective, professional, and volunteer workforce.

• A Bachelor’s degree, and ideally a Master’s degree, in education, non-profit management, business, youth development, social work, or a related field.

• Keen intellect along with the initiative, integrity, and flexibility necessary to address the practicalities of a nonprofit enterprise. The humility to honor the impressive work done to date and the courage, vision, and creativity to lead LAYC YouthBuild PCS to new levels of promise. A good sense of humor with the ability to actively listen and create a healthy work environment is a must.

• Spanish /English bilingual strongly preferred.

APPLICATIONS AND NOMINATIONS

More information about LAYC YouthBuild PCS may be found at:

http://www.ybpcs.org

Nominations and applications are due by May 16, 2008. Due to the pace of this search, candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Applications including a cover letter describing your interest and qualifications, your resume (in Word format), salary history and where you learned of the position should be sent to:

ybpcs-ed@nonprofitprofessionals.com.

In order to expedite the internal sorting and reviewing process, please type your name (Last, First) as the only contents in the subject line of your e-mail.

The LAYC YouthBuild Public Charter School is an equal opportunity employer.